The Wizard in the Iron Armor
by AlphaCenturion
Summary: After a terrible tragedy at Privet Drive, Harry is given an armor. An armor the world has forgotten about but will remember once again.
1. Where It All Went Awry

**The Wizard in the Iron Armor**

Disclaimer: I do not own _Harry Potter_ or _Ironman_. Those are owned by JKR and Marvel Comics respectively.

"Who?" – talking

"_What?"_ – thinking

"_**Where?" **_– parseltounge

_Spells_

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This is my first fan fiction. After thinking of writing for a long time I finally got an idea in my head that demanded that it be written and put on here for all to read. Oh, and as I'm American and not British I don't know British sayings or such. And I'm not going to go out of my way to find them. So please be kind in reviews. Thank you.

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This takes place after 5th year and right after Harry leaves King's Cross station.

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Chapter 1

Where It All Went Awry

Harry could tell even before he was in the car that his uncle was furious, since Uncle Vernon was turning a nice red and purple splotchy color. "Damn those freaks, thinking they could tell me what to do," Uncle Vernon was muttering as he drove, swerving to avoid cars as he roared down the highway, his knuckles whitening from how tight his grip was on the steering wheel. "After everything I did for you Boy, they think they can tell a perfectly respectable person what to do in their own house and with their own lives." Harry said nothing. He knew only bad things would come from Moody, Remus and the others talking to Vernon. He had tried to stop them from talking to Vernon. But now the damage was done.

"_Well, I can tell this summer isn't going to be a good one,"_ Harry thought as the car drew closer to Little Whining. _"I'm glad Hedwig is flying back, that way I can keep her out of the house and away from 'Uncle' Vernon. He just might try to kill her, since 'normal' people don't keep owls as pets."_

Vernon continued mumbling angrily all the way back to Number 4 Privet Drive.

As the car drove into the driveway Harry could feel the air begin to weigh down upon him. He knew the explosion that was Mount Vernon was only a few moments away. "Boy, go to your room, now!" Uncle Vernon seethed. Harry tried to get his school trunk out of the car. His uncle stopped him and began dragging him to the house. "None of that Boy. You will do as I said. Room, Now!"

Upon entering Number 4 Harry saw something that boggled his mind. _"Is that Dudley, looking… welcoming?"_ It was. Dudley Dursley looked like he was happy Harry was back, not in any sort of malicious way but rather like he was shyly welcoming back a brother, or rather, a cousin. Dudley had lost a lot of weight and gained some serious muscle over the last year. Where a year before he looked like a blubbery bully, now Dudley looked like a strong young man, though he was still overweight.

"Hey Harry, how's…"

"Not now Dudley," Harry interrupted and flinched, expecting Dudley to get angry at him, maybe even hit him,. "Vernon isn't happy right now, and I dunno…"

"Right. Talk to you later tonight then?" Dudley questioned.

"Sure, later."

The second Harry was quiet Vernon came roaring into the house carrying Harry's trunk. "Why aren't you in your room Boy?! Get in there now! And no dinner!" Vernon stowed the trunk into the cupboard under the stairs and locked it away

Harry couldn't move fast enough.

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Staring up at the ceiling Harry thought about everything that had happened at the end of the year.

Nearly being tortured by Umbridge.

Fighting the Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries.

Sirius dying.

Using _Crucio_ on Bellatrix.

Being possessed by Voldemort.

And finally, learning that damned prophecy.

"_Why oh why is it always me?"_ he thought. _"Has fate or destiny decided I have to deal with all this? I know I may not have the worst life in the world right now, but how many other buggers have to deal with this? How many others know they have to _kill_ the Dark Lord of their time, or the world is doomed?"_

"_I know in my head that Sirius's death wasn't my fault. I went off of the information I had. The fact the information was so very wrong is only apparent now since I know where the information was coming from. I do know that Sirius came to protect me, and he went out standing up, wand in hand, laughing at the enemy (though that really was a dumb thing to do Sirius.) The only other way he would have wanted to go would have been to be surrounded by beautiful women. Sorry Padfoot, no hot ladies for you on this side of the Veil, hope you'll find them over there though."_ Harry chuckled at the thought.

He looked over at the nearly crushed clock that he had sitting on the desk. 11:38pm it said. Though it was hard to tell since the screen which showed the time had splintered slightly from when Dudley had thrown it against the wall in a tantrum. He heard the locks on this door begin to be undone. _"Well,"_ Harry thought, _"here comes Vernon to let his anger out for the day."_

Knock, Knock

"_What? He's actually knock…oh yeah, Dud wanted to talk."_ "Come in Dudley."

Slowly the door opened. "Hey." Dudley slowly peered into the room. "Mind if I come in?"

"_He's actually asking? What the hell happened to make Dudley like this?"_ Harry thought. "Hey. Yeah, sure come on in."

Dudley came in and softly shut the door behind him. He was wearing a wife beater that showed off the muscle he gained but it also showed how he still had a way to go before he was considered healthy. His pajama bottoms were ones he had the last year, with pictures of a boxing champion on them, though they were a bit loose on him now due to his lost weight.

Dudley walked over to the only chair in the room and shoved all the things that were on it onto the floor, and plopped himself right onto the chair. Once Dudley saw what he had done he paused and began picking the things back up, clearly ashamed of what he had done. Harry, seeing what was going on, stopped him. "Dud, it's fine. Just leave em be."

"Oh, uh, ya sure? I'm fine putting them back?" It was clear Dudley was trying to be nice, almost _too_ nice.

"Dud, what's going on?"

"I….uh….well," Dudley stammered. "I wanted to say I was sorry."

Harry was shocked. _"Dudley apologizing? To me? Is the world ending? Did _I_ go through the Veil to some alternate reality?"_

Dudley, practically seeing the thoughts going through Harry's head, chuckled. "I know, I know. I've never really been on for apologies, but I've changed…well, trying to change. See, things haven't exactly been… how can I put it, going well this year?"

"How so Dudley?"

"Well, last summer, with the Dementors.."

"You actually know the name? I remember last summer when you guys called them Dementoids." Harry says chuckling lightly in remembrance.

"Heh, yeah. I remember. About two weeks after you left or disappeared (ya know we knew you were going to leave but it was so sudden) I went up to Mum when Dad was away and asked her what happened that night."

------Flashback----------

Petunia sits in the dining room. The only movement in the room is the drapes rippling as the wind blows softly into the room and Petunia nervously wringing a wash cloth. Dudley notices this as peculiar since she has constantly been cleaning since Harry left two weeks before.

"Mom, is everything ok?" Dudley asks softly.

"Hmmm? Wha..oh, yes. Of course it is Duddums. Why wouldn't it be?" Petunia answers. She wouldn't look him in the eye, and began twisting the cloth a bit harder.

"You just seem….nervous. Like something is going to go terribly wrong." Dudley spots some darkness under her eyes, which seems to be covered by make-up. "Or maybe that something already did."

Seeing Dudley was actually worried about her, she begins explaining. "It was those terrible things, Duddums. Those terrible things."

"I don't really remember what happened. Can you tell me what those things were?" Dudley asked.

Petunia scrunched up her face showing her distaste for the idea, but since this was her Dudley asking she calmly and softly begins to tell him. "From what I remember from Lily and the few times she talked about that…world of hers, there is a prison where all the convicts of their kind are kept. This prison is guarded night and day by …things called dementors. Lily said these dementors pull all happy emotions from a person and force them to relive every terrible thing that person has ever done. The worst punishment ever given in their world is when a dementor 'kisses' a person and sucks out their soul, leaving a husk of a person behind. The body still lives but with no soul there is no chance of recovery."

"You mean, I almost….." Dudley asked softly.

"From what Harry described, it seems the dementor was about to suck out your soul before he cast that…spell of his."

"I saw something white. It felt so… reassuring, like everything bad was going to go away. And it did." Dudley pauses for a bit, thinking. "What happened when I got home though, I can't really remember. I vaguely remember some yelling?"

Petunia got up, put aside the wash cloth and began brewing some tea, knowing this conversation wasn't going to go away any time soon and many things were going to come to light she had hidden for many a year, even from herself.


	2. Pain of the Past Pain in the Present

**The Wizard in the Iron Armor**

Disclaimer: I do not own _Harry Potter_ or _Ironman_. Those are owned by JKR and Marvel Comics respectively.

"Who?" – talking

"_What?"_ – thinking

"_**Where?" **_– parseltounge

_Spells_

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This is my first fan fiction. Thank you for the kind reviews. I'll try to update when I can but my life is a bit hectic, and I like really working out a chapter before I post it. Thanks again.

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Previously on "**The Wizard in the Iron Armor**"

"_I saw something white. It felt so… reassuring, like everything bad was going to go away. And it did." Dudley pauses for a bit, thinking. "What happened when I got home though, I can't really remember. I vaguely remember some yelling?"_

_Petunia got up, put aside the wash cloth and began brewing some tea, knowing this conversation wasn't going to go away any time soon and many things were going to come to light she had hidden for many a year, even from herself._

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Chapter 2

Pain of the Past; Pain in the Present

--------------Still in Flashback from last chapter---------------

As the water began boiling in the teapot, Petunia began to talk. "That evening Harry came home, carrying you in the door. I always feared the world he's in would take another thing I love. It took my sister from me, and brought me so much pain. I was afraid it would take you from me too. Vernon, as always, relieved his anger out at your cousin. Then one of those infernal owls came swooping in and dropped a letter, and flew away as fast as it could." Petunia's eyes became lost in the past. As a small smile began to cross her face, Dudley could hear her mumble under her breath "I always loved the owl Lily had, it was so smart and pretty, just like that Hedwig owl."

"What was the letter about Mom?" Dudley asked, carefully not acknowledging he heard his mother.

"Hmm? Oh, right." Petunia brought her focus back to Dudley. "It was a letter from his Ministry telling him he'd done magic in front of a muggle and so he was expelled."

"What? Why?"

"They have a law saying he can't do magic in front of people who don't know about magic, and he can't do magic outside of school until he is seventeen years old."

"Why was he expelled though? Why would the government control who goes to school? I mean, I already knew about magic. Still scared of it." Dudley mumbled. He thought about how Harry couldn't do magic outside of school and that Harry had threatened him with it before. Harry never lied, now that he thought about it, so he completely bought into Harry being allowed to do magic outside of school. But what about when Aunt Marge had been blown up the summer before? He wasn't punished then. So, what had changed? Why was he punished now? Not knowing the answers to these questions Dudley asked his mother.

"Well Duddums, I don't know what changed or why he wasn't punished then. But I do think I know the reasoning behind his thoughts. He finally had something to protect himself with against your father and you, something to stop you from hitting him, chasing him, or even harassing him. And don't think I don't know about that group of boys you hang out with, those terrible boys making you do those mean things."

Dudley, in a rare moment of insight, kept his mouth shut and didn't tell his mother he was in charge of the gang. He also thought about the reasons his mother pointed out. He knew he never listened to Harry before, just as his father had told him to do. Then that giant man came to pick up Harry four years ago and had given Dudley a pig's tail, so of course he became afraid of magic. Then those red-haired boys had dropped those sweets a year ago. But none of those incidences had been done by Harry. Always someone else, and always for Harry's protection. Harry may have hinted at magic, but never did anything against Dudley. He never did anything against Dudley. That thought rang his head, and Dudley knew he was had done something wrong in his life.

As Dudley and Petunia sat, thinking about what happened that night two weeks ago and further in the past, the teapot began to shrill. Petunia began to prepare a pot for tea, and got out a box of cookies for them to eat. Once the tea and cookies were at the table, Dudley asked yet another question Petunia hoped to never answer.

"Mom, why? Why did you and dad encourage me to be so mean to Harry?"

Petunia looked ashamed, sad, and a bit lost all at once. "Because I knew he was going to leave one day. And because I enjoy being normal."

"What do you mean by 'normal,' Mom?"

"That is a long story Dudley. It began as I grew up with Lily. She had everything one could want. She was beautiful, smart, and got along well with everyone. Then she learned she was a witch. She learned a bit about what being a witch meant from that greasy little boy. What was his name again? Oh, that's right. Snape, Severus Snape. Anyway, he used his magic to hurt me,"

Dudley interrupted. "How did he hurt you, Mom?"

Petunia stopped for a second, looked away from Dudley, and scrunched her eyes, remembering a distant pain. She ignored Dudley's question. "Over time he also took my sister from me. She was 'different' and got the attention of my parents and could go to a wonderful school. Then we grew further and further apart as children, till I barely knew her anymore. Then my parents, your grandparents, were murdered, by that evil man 'Voldemort' and his followers. Do you know why?"

Dudley, who knew nothing about the magical world at all, said. "No, why? I didn't even know they were murdered. Dad kept saying they were in an accident…" At that one moment Dudley remembered how his father would always go on and on about how his Aunt Lily had died in a car crash with that no good husband of hers. How many other people had died in 'accidents', Dudley wondered. Was an 'accident' a way for Vernon to explain how they died? Was he making it easier for Dudley to understand? The more Dudley thought about it, the more he believed his father didn't care how they died, only that when he told people about their deaths, the deaths would seem to be the fault of the one who died, not that they were murdered.

"No Duddums, they were murdered, for a very 'simple' reason. Because of my sister. Because she was a "mudblood." Because she was different. I could never forgive her. I will always love my sister, I never want you to doubt that Duddums, your aunt was a wonderful person. But because she was different, I lost so much. So when I found your cousin on the porch, looking up at me with my sister's eyes, raising his little hand asking 'Mama, Mama?' while looking around, trying to find Lily, I knew, I just knew, that pain would continue, and the cost would become too high."

Dudley was shocked. Here he was being told the reason he was encouraged to chase, injure, etc. his cousin was because of his moms pain? This didn't make any sense. Even Dudley, with his meaty head and thick skull, knew there was more going on. "Mom, that tells me why you acted that way, but what about dad?"

If nothing else, Petunia looked even more ashamed than before. She looked out the window, watching the breeze wave the drapes. She slowly answered. "That ties a bit into me again, but at the same time is so much worse." Slowly sipping the tea she prepared to tell her story, a story which she knew would destroy the faith her son had in his father.

"Because my sister was 'freakish' I wanted a normal life. A life in a nice normal suburban neighborhood, with a normal husband, and a normal life. Nothing freakish anywhere in my life. Vernon, when he was courting me, was very normal. He was kind, did all the things a normal boyfriend would do. He also had just gotten a nice job at the drill company, a nice normal company. So, I fell in love with him and married him." Petunia took another sip of her tea to calm her nerves, the tea leaving a slight bitter taste in her mouth, like the words she was about to say about her husband. "We had a happy year married together. Then I began to notice things. I knew he liked normal, just like I did. However he took it a whole other level. Everything that didn't fit into his world was 'freakish'. A person didn't do something he wanted, they were a freak. Did something different, a freak. Even if someone questioned him, they were a freak. I told Vernon I had a sister, not that she was a witch, or did anything different, just that we didn't talk anymore. Then your cousin was dropped off on the front porch. That blasted letter tucked into his blanket changed everything. All of a sudden I was the sister to a freak, with a freak brother-in-law. My parents were freaks for having my sister. Even though they were dead, murdered even, they were freaks, and their deaths were a positive thing. 'A benefit to society,' he would say." Petunia grabbed her wash cloth and began to dap her eyes, but with too much force, causing her eyes to redden in both sadness and anger. "Vernon is a mean man when he deals with freaks. He likes being cruel to those weaker than himself. Doesn't matter who the person is, as long as they are weaker than him. And I'm much weaker than he is. He never hit me though Dudders, never hit me. But his voice and his words, and his actions were so cruel, so very cruel." Petunia lost all pretense and began to cry. This alone showed Dudley how terrible his own father was. Dudley had never, in his life, seen his mother cry.

-----------------End Flashback-------------------

After Dudley stopped recounting his tale, the air hung heavy with silence.

"She…she actually cried?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, it was, in a way, so very frightening." Dudley responded.

"And she knew Snape? How? He's the epitome of bastardness, always looking down at muggle-born and anyone not in his house."

"Huh? You know this guy?"

"Yeah, he teaches at my school. Never knew he knew Aunt Petunia or my mum before school though. I also never knew my grandparents were murdered. Or even how my being here changed so much." _"Because of me, my own aunt has been terrorized. And with all the other pain and suffering….no, stop thinking like that. That way leads to the Dark side, the dark side of magic. I never did anything wrong to her. I was only a child. I was Vernon who caused her pain. Vernon who molded Dudley to be like him. Vernon who made my life here hell. Everything painful here at Privet Drive can be placed solely at Vernon's feet."_ "Anyway, while I understand how her explanation might have, well, explained things to you, but that really doesn't explain why you're so, well….."

"Nice now?"

"I was trying to think of a nicer way to say it, but yeah."

"I got my head out of my ass and actually looked at myself and what I was doing." Dudley answered in all frankness. "And I've been an ass. I know I'm not smart, never have been and never will be. But I do know what is right and what is wrong…well, now I do.

Note: This is a preview/ half a chapter. I know I don't write that fast, and I really want to get this up. So there's more to come, don't worry.


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